Strategy

/ˈstradəjē/

noun

a plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim

The blaring three note signal sounded again. Luke groaned from beside me, his arms still wrapped protectively around my waist. It had been a week since he was in the hospital and now he was fully recovered, meaning that we could finally plan the last raid.

"Don't wanna go," he mumbled with his sleep filled voice, his arms pulling me unimaginably closer to him. I lightly giggled and tried, but failed, to turn toward him to wake him. When all else failed I relaxed into the comfortable position we were currently in and started tracing lines on his hands.

"Luke?" His hands flattened against my stomach, and I continued drawing swirly lines on them. I felt a head nudging mine over slightly. I obliged to his silent request and let his head rest in the crevice of my neck.

"Mhm?" he asked, his lips landing all over my shoulder and leading toward my collarbone; leaving chaste kisses in their path. A familiar buzz crept into my brain and burning sensation left on my skin.

"We need to go to the meeting," I giggled at him. His lips didn't stop traveling on my skin as he cuddled closer to me.

"We can miss one, right?"

I laughed loudly, shaking my head at him. When I tried to pull away from his addictive lips, he only pulled me closer. "Quiffie," I referred to his old nickname. "It will look suspicious if we both aren't there." I attempted to reason with him, but his arms wouldn't move at all. He groaned in annoyance, no longer kissing me, and moved so that we can see each other. "And plus, we are leaving on the raid right after this meeting."

"This isn't a very good morning," he complained. I laughed again at him and kissed his nose lightly before getting up from the bed and walking towards the bathroom in my shorts and tank top.

"Get ready!" I said over my shoulder, entering the room with my outfit in one arm.

"Can I join?" he asked cheekily, knowing I was off to take a shower.

I rolled my eyes at him, though he couldn't see me. "No!"  I screeched loudly, internally wishing that I had said yes. A chuckle left his lips as he searched for his outfit from the former night, scattered on my floor.

We both got ready quickly, but not as fast as the others obviously because when we exited my room no one was leaving. His fingers intertwined with mine as we walked down the grey hallway that was filled with so many memories, almost all good. A moment later he was using his hand to pull me closer and slinging his arm around me, sensing my frigidness.

We were the last to arrive in the planning center. Around the table, Bob, Michael, Calum, and Ashton were already seated and waiting for us to be present before beginning the meeting.

"Now that the lovebirds are here," Michael's voice drifted off, and all the others around the table began laughing at his joke. My face even cracked a smile, but Luke remained solemn and serious.

"So what's the meeting about?" he asked, leading me toward our seats at the table. Ashton was grumbling something about how he didn't get to eat when Bob began the meeting.

"We need a plan," he stated. His eyes going around the table before continuing. "We are close to the Code. When we get it, Melissa can decipher it easily, but we need propaganda. We need people on our side. Otherwise, we are a sitting duck waiting to be pulverized."

"What do you suggest we do?" Michael asked, his joking mood from before was nowhere to be seen as he looked at Bob. We all lost our joking mood when the rebellion was brought up. Even though this society was wrong, and almost everyone agreed on that, some didn't want to risk their or their twin's lives on an uprising that might not even make it off the ground.

"We can't scare them into it. Everyone has been scared enough by the government. If we scare them, we're no better than them," Ashton pointed out.

Calum's arms were resting on the table, tapping out a beat on it. Michael had his head of newly blue hair in his hands. Everyone in the room was tense.

"But that's the only way to get them to join the cause. To know that we are tough. So what if it scares them? If it scares them, it scares the White Coats," Bob told Ashton, pointing his finger at him across the table.

Ashton let out a huff of annoyance. He was right, we couldn't scare people into joining. But we did have to scare the White Coats to an extent.

"What do you suppose we do then? If we were to 'terrorize' the citizens, what would we do?" Calum spoke up for the first time since the meeting commenced.

"Go in and shoot anyone that stands in the way is a good plan," Bob offered. All five sets of our eyes turn to him immediately when he said this. His stayed locked with Calum's the entire time, but it was clear from his fidgeting that he can sense our gazes burning holes in his skull.

"That is the stupidest idea I have ever heard!" Luke stood from his seat, unable to control his body's motions. "They may not be on our side, but they are human!"

"No! No, they aren't Lucas! They are Bots, or have you forgotten your little girlfriend's job before you kidnapped her?" he screamed back at Luke. I rose to my feet in a matter of seconds, putting my body in front of Luke's to prevent him from starting a fight and to suppress the feeling in my stomach that Bob would try to harm him.

"Oh this is just rich! Luke getting protected! I thought you were the special ops head, but obviously you need a little-"

Before he could get out the rest of his sentence, Luke was out from behind me and walking towards him with angered steps. When he reached him and was toe to toe with him, his hand came flying down without warning. The pressure in the room was increasing by the second as Bob grabbed a hold of one of the swivel chairs near him. His lip was bleeding and the inside of his mouth was as well, but, nevertheless, he smiled up at Luke.

"You're whipped," he coughed out, sputtering blood onto the white tiled floor.

Luke's hand rose up again, this time forming a fist shape. Without thinking, I placed my hand on his shoulder and threw myself in front of his fist, bracing myself for the impact by shutting my eyes tightly. When the blow never came, I peeked out through one of my eyes to find his fist lowered and his eyes searching my opened one for an explanation.

"This won't solve anything," I whispered to him, my arms circling his neck. His heavy breathing slowed down and his shoulders fell from their previously taunt position. I smiled slightly at him and received one back before turning to address Bob. "And killing everyone won't do anything. For us or them."

"It'll take some of their force away," he mumbled.

Luke's muscles tensed again in reflex. My hand came up to touch his shoulder in response, and he instantly relaxed under my touch.

"It will take some of our recruits away from us," I countered him. "And some of our soldiers will get killed in this probably. You need to think, and not act on impulse, Leader."

He sneered at my last comment, but stayed in his position on the ground, recalling the last time we were in a fight in this room only a couple of months ago.

Deciding that we needed to head back to our seats, I tugged on Luke's arm and walked back to our chairs on the opposite side of the table. Bob picked himself off of the floor and sat in his seat once again. Ashton still looked furious, but had obviously calmed down. Both Michael and Calum sat with smug expressions on their faces, amused by this situation.

"Since you know so much, Melissa," Bob began sarcastically, earning a growl of irritation from Luke. "What should we do?"

"I never said I know what to do. I just said that as the leader, you should be concerned for the well being of your citizens. Sending them into a death trap isn't being that concerned," I said smugly, sitting back in my seat. His nostrils flared with anger.

"We can just go, and get the code. Work from there," Michael suggested, his arm raised slightly as if he is raising his hand for permission to speak.

"We need propaganda!" Bob yelled, frustrated by our laid backness.

"We need to keep the people safe, and sending them onto a battlefield isn't safe!" I screamed back at him, rising from my seat so I could be taller than him. He stood from his seat, once again unhappy by my upper hand, being taller than me.

"We can't save everyone! And what's the worse thing that can happen to them?"

I narrowed my eyes at him. "They could be killed for starters, but you obviously don't care about that. But how would you feel knowing that a nineteen year old that you sent into battle was given a double dose of serum. He would die over the course of a year, slowly and painfully," I assured him. "And then they can be lab rats. For all that new technology they need to test since we have the code. If we go in and lose one man, we are giving them the gateway to continue their tyranny."

"They will die with honor," he spat back as if that was a way to clear his conscience.

"They will die in a hospital, being tortured! You may be able to handle living with that, but I can't. And I won't decipher that code if there is one man being tortured because of your idiotic plan!" I screamed across the table, throwing my hands down to prove my point.

"How dare you threaten me!" he lunged toward me. Luke bolted up suddenly and pushed me behind him while I prepared for a fist to come in contact with my recently healed face.

"Try it," Luke growled at him, his grip tight on my wrist. My eyes opened as Bob sat back down without another word, huffing at Luke's interference.

"You'll do whatever I say girl," he responded when Luke and I had sat back down in our seats.

"If one man is being tortured, I would rather die than decipher your bloody code," I spat at him. Luke's face turned to face me with adoration filling it as I stood up for both of our beliefs. Despite his over-protective nature, Luke understood my need to protest types of things such as this and was fully on board with my decision as he stood behind me ready to step in to protect me.

"That can be arranged," he said calmly, causing Luke's nostrils to flare and the other boys to react in similar manners. It was only Ashton who approached the situation with a question and not hotheadedness as the rest of the boys were developing ways to assassinate Bob in his sleep from what I could tell.

"Whoa. Hold up, you're going to kill her?" Ashton asked incredulously. "You have more respect for human life than that and we all know it."

"If she is of no use, then why do I care about her life?" Bob responded, looking at me with blazing eyes as I stood firmly with Luke standing directly behind me. Our eye contact was never broken, but I could sense what was happening all throughout the room.

Luke was glaring at Bob, and if looks could kill, Bob would have died before the meeting even started. Michael and Calum, on the other hand, were rising from their seats as if they were ready to attack.

"You touch her, and you'll wish you were never born," he said in a low, menacing voice. "I will fucking kill you if you lay one hand on her," he seethed through his gritted teeth. All of the boys seemed to nod in agreement as I simply stood there, not saying a word.

Fights continued to break out, one after another, around the table. But we had come to a conclusion by noon, and it would be put in motion in under fifteen minutes of the meeting ending.

"Who's going?" Calum asked.

I hadn't talked since that argument had finished, but I was listening to their conversations intently. They were raiding the building with the code. No propaganda was needed for that, but man power was a definite necessity.

"Luke?" Bob turned the question to my boyfriend who was currently drawing circles on my knee under the table.

My heart plummeted in my chest as it always did when he had to go on raids. I knew he had to go, he was the head of the special operations unit, but that didn't stop me from thinking that maybe one time he wouldn't have to go.

"Ashton and Mark can drive the trucks, and keep the outside guards occupied as we enter," Ashton was nodding his head in approval on the other side of the table, accepting his job in the expedition and probably relieved that he wasn't that big of a part of this so that he had a better chance of coming back to his little sister. "Michael, can you take the first flight in through Gate A?"

Michael nodded his head at Luke, and I felt a nudge of my knee from Luke. I looked over at him, confused until he motioned for me to take notes. I nodded to him and started two columns, one for Mark and one for Ashton, making subgroups for the gates as well.

"You'll go with Mark, and you'll be with me. Calum and the second flight will be entering Gate C." His accent is hard to understand as he speaks quickly but I catch enough to write everything on the grid.

"Bob, you're with the third flight going to Gate D with Ash. And Ashton you'll also be dropping off the computer team at Gate B after you drop off Bob's flight. The rest are with Mark."

Everything was sorted. Third flight and the computer team were with Ashton, and the first and second were with Mark. But nowhere on the grid was my name.

"Where am I, Luke?" I asked him, confused as to why name wasn't on the list.

"You're not going," he stated, his voice firm.

My eyes glared at him, but he ignored me, looking at the table length map of the building.

"Are the people picking up the same one's dropping us off?" Calum asked across the table, trying to get clarification.

"Yes. The plan is to find the code, walkie talkie the others when you find it, and get out of there. Walkie in if you abort," Luke said in a strong voice.

Everyone's heads nodded as this was standard procedure, an I can see fear in their eyes but mostly the anticipation for Luke's next words.

"Suit up."

Edited: 14 January 2017